When the Trump Plan was first rolled out at the White House, three Arab ambassadors – from Bahrain, the UAE, and Oman – were in attendance, in seeming support of the plan. Still other Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco – released remarks that treated the Trump Plan as a praiseworthy effort that could serve as the basis for serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Israelis, of course, were also present at the launch, and pleased with the plan, even though it required them to recognize a “State of Palestine” with its capital on the outskirts of East Jerusalem. These were major concessions by the Israelis that have not been sufficiently appreciated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who stood alongside Trump in the White House as the US leader presented the plan, immediately declared his support for the scheme.
He also initially said Israel would immediately move to annex the Jordan Valley and West Bank settlements with Washington’s okay — only to have the White House clarify quickly that there was no approval for immediate annexation moves.
“Is it reasonable for the Arabs to become applauders for Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in the 2nd or 3rd row?” Sheikh asked, apparently referring to ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman, who also attended the rollout ceremony.
“Is it reasonable for the Arabs to applaud the division of the Al-Aqsa? Is it reasonable for the Arabs to applaud al-Quds being the capital of Israel?” he added, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
There is no division of Al-Aqsa in the Trump Plan. It remains just as it is now, under the control of the Jordanian religious authorities. As for Jerusalem, as already noted above, in the Trump plan, provision is made for the Palestinians to have their capital in a part of East Jerusalem that falls outside Israel’s security barrier — probably the suburb of Abu Dis. The Palestinians are free, of course, to rename that part of East Jerusalem as Al-Quds.
Sheikh also expressed his appreciation to Jordanian King Abdullah for his “strong and solid” position in stressing that the peace deal must include key Palestinian demands that are currently not part of the proposal.
Abdullah could not have done anything else. He is the weak king of a weak country. More than 70% of Jordan’s population consists of Palestinians – that is, people whose parents or grandparents arrived from west of the Jordan River. Abdullah cannot afford to antagonize them, and must, therefore, parrot the Palestinian demands, no matter how unrealistic they may be. But what about much more powerful Arab states? When the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, and Oman all voted at the meeting of the Arab League on February 1 to reject the very plan they had three days before found praiseworthy, it was deeply disappointing.
Abdullah spoke with Abbas on Friday and assured him that Amman would stand by Ramallah’s side “in the fight to achieve [their] rightful independent state, in accordance with the 1967 borders.”
Let’s remind ourselves, and King Abdullah as well, that when Jordan held the West Bank from 1949 to 1967, his father King Hussein did nothing to create a “Palestinian state” in that territory, but instead treated it as part of Jordan. In the same way, Egypt – which held Gaza – made no effort to create a Palestinian entity in the Strip. Of course, for both Jordan and Egypt, the “Palestinian people” had not yet been invented, so a “Palestinian state” was superogatory.
Jordan has also said it rejects any unilateral move by Israel, referring to the settlement annexation plan.
Note to King Abdullah and his advisors:
1. Please read the Mandate for Palestine, especially the Preamble, and Articles 4 and 6, and study the accompanying Mandate maps.
2. Please read U.N. Resolution 242, with accompanying commentary on its meaning by its author, Lord Caradon.
The Palestinians have angrily rejected the entire plan.
The Palestinians have “angrily rejected” every peace plan that’s been offered them, including one which would have given them 97% of the West Bank, and another that would have given them 95%. They clearly do not believe in compromise. They want the entire West Bank, guaranteed to be theirs in advance of any negotiation. There is no way for Israel, or the United States, to deal with such a refractory party. The Trump peace-and-prosperity initiative offers the Palestinians an endless cornucopia of benefits – read the 181 -page report (179 pages of text, with 2 of maps) and see if I’ve exaggerated – and still they won’t take it. Worse, they won’t even read the plan. Their minds are made up. A hundred countries would jump at the chance to have such an offer made to them, but not the Palestinians. And Abbas managed to pull one last rabbit out of the hat when, on February 1, at a special meeting of the Arab League held in Cairo, the foreign ministers unanimously agreed to reject the Trump peace plan. We’ll see if that is their last word on the plan, or whether, in their own national interests, some will – away from the insensate pressure of 22 Arab League members meeting as a group – again reconsider, and quietly suggest to Abbas that the Trump plan at least deserves to be looked at.
“This conspiracy deal will not pass. Our people will take it to the dustbin of history,” Abbas said Tuesday. “We say a thousand times: No, no and no to the ‘deal of the century.’”
It’s the “Palestinians” who do not realize that this is likely the best deal – not a “conspiracy deal” – that they will ever be offered, and that from here on out, they will increasingly be on their own, as Arab states attend to their own worries and national interests. Three of the most important Arab states – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – likely voted as they did in Cairo only in order not to be depicted as less steadfast in the Palestinian cause than Turkey or Iran, and not because they truly found the Trump plan objectionable.
Both the Saudi Crown Prince and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi recognize that a strong Israel is their most useful ally in containing Iran. They voted in Cairo as the Palestinians wanted, but without, one suspects, any particular enthusiasm. Having given Mahmoud Abbas his desired hollow victory with the Arab League vote, these countries can now return to their security collaboration with Israel against Iran, as their national interests dictate. And the Palestinians will be very much on their own.